You
never know what you've omitted or not made clear until you get feedback
- these are the questions which have popped up so far...

Why
haven't the Gallery Pages been updated in a while?

Blame
the "day job"... Basically beginning in mid-2010, a long
term project in my job begin taking over much of my free time. This
continued to expand through 2011 and finally finished in January
of 2012. If you draw a graph showing the average pace of gallery
additions over time, you will see them drop precipitously during
that period.

As
I dig into the stunningly large quantity of submissions in the backlog,
I'm also turning up some which were incorrectly routed by me (and
my email setup), so there are images sent as far back as September,
2010 which have been patiently awaiting posting.

I
apologize for the delay, but now have got some time to start working
on it. If you sent in an image between 9/10 and now, it's likely
to be showing up. Hang in there and keep your eye on the Cyclofiend.com
Gallery Updates Blog.

How
can I get my bicycle in next year's Current Classics Calendar?

All
images in the Cyclofiend.com
Calendar were taken from bicycles which have been submitted
to the Galleries. To be considered, you must first send in photos
and a description as outlined on the Guidelines
page. If you have more questions about the process and the qualities
I'm looking for, send an email to calendar (overat) cyclofiend
(dotty) com. That will give you more information regarding the
necessary image resolution required, as well as a few other hints.
UPDATE 2/12 - There has only been one calendar printed, and I'm
currently evaluating the possibility for one in 2013. I mean, since
the Aztecs didn't bother to print one, there will be one heckuva
demand...

Why
have you listed my email address?

Because
a lot of other folks will see your listing and may have questions
for you. By default, your email address will be listed as a hyperlink
(i.e. - a clickable bit of text which will generate an email). I
am happy to omit your email address from the listing, but you need
to tell me to do so. (By the way, I do not post phone numbers
or specific address location information which many people have
in their email footers.)

Unless
I receive specific instructions otherwise, I will include
(a) the email you put in the body of your submission or
(b) the email from which you send the submission or
(c) the spam-thwarting spell out of yourname overat somedomain dotty
comm*

If
you don't want me to do that, please put "No Email Please"
at the top of your submission or in the subject line.

*If
you spell out your email - e.g. "bob at bob dot org" -
I will leave that in the text as you typed it, but won't make it
into a hyperlink.

It's
also pretty easy to set up a gmail (or similar) account on your
end, and filter it pretty aggressively.

What's
this about photos with pets?

If
you supply a bicycle photo with your pet and make a donation
to this site, 1/2 of your amount will be gifted to one of the animal
rescue groups shown on the right hand side of this page. These are
two local groups which my wife and I have worked with, and two national
groups which seem to be doing the right thing.

I
don't have a pet, can I still submit a photo?

Absolutely!
The pet in the picture thing was kind of a whim, but the first cross
bike photo submitted had Gunnar (yes, that Gunnar) in it, so it
seemed like we should formalize it.

Of
course, if you thinking of getting an animal companion, please consider
giving a rescued animal a good home. Petfinder.org
is an excellent resource for locating specific breeds and rescue
groups in your area. Rescue and "2nd Chance" animals are
some of the most grateful animals you will encounter.

Can't
you just pull the photos off of my (or someone else's) website?

Sorry,
can't do it. There's a few reasons.

First,
I don't really have the time to go out and get them.

Second,
if you send them to me, there's no issue about me obtaining someone
else's "intellectual property".

Third
- It seems that the SnapFishes, Ofotos, PhotoBuckets or what have
you compress the screen images in ways which seem to sacrafice photo
quality if you just download directly from the screen image. Some
of them also imbed their little logo as a watermark in the photo.
Bleah. (Artistically speaking...)

I
sent you 20 photos - where are they?

As
I said on the guidelines page, I'd rather have 5 (five) really good,
well thought out photos than a whole bunch more. Sometimes if there's
a 6th one which really adds something, I'll let it slip in, but
I just don't have the time to process and transfer more than 5 per
posting.

How
come no people?

Because
when you get famous and I have a photo of you without a model release
on file, your lawyers will come after me like rabid fleas...

How
come you didn't include some of my photos?

If
there were too many people and I didn't have the time to blur their
features, or if there were animals seemingly under duress, they
won't make it into the Galleries. Those are the two major reasons
for omissions. Oh, also not having a bicycle in the photo...

Why
am I being asked to donate?

Throughout
the Cyclofiend.com site, there are a few "Donation" buttons
littered about. Clicking on the donation button:

will open a secure page with Paypal where you can make a donation.
You can either make a payment through your Paypal account, or if
you don't have one, you can sign up on that page (or use the credit
card option). The donations are purely voluntary, and are used to
defray hosting expenses and bandwidth charges all of which continue
to edge upwards as the site becomes more popular.

If
you want to mail a check, send an email to cyclofiend (at) cyclofiend.com
and I'll tell you where it goes.

What's
up with the dog?

That's
Tashi, she was our Cocker Spaniel, who was a rescue we got through
Hopalong Animal Rescue. She had been out on the streets for a while,
and then in the clink for two weeks when we first met her. She was
at her "termination date" when we fostered her, and about
a half hour later, we realized she had found us. She had a good
gig and I still miss her.
If you see a "little Tashi"
next to a listing in one of the galleries, that mean's that the
photo has a pet in it. Even if it is a cat, lizard, snake, macaw,
raven or whatever you call your pet...

Can
I submit my Cross Bike if I don't race?

Absolutely!

If
your bike was designed for cross, snap a photo
and send it in. It
doesn't matter if you use it as a commuter, a touring bike or rain
trainer... I'd rather not see a mountain bike that has had its bottle
cage and bar ends removed, even though you may have raced that.

It's
the stuff that isn't what everyone else is churning out these days*.
It ought to be designed so that it doesn't get pegged into a specific
year (my personal special head-shaker is a mountain bike with a
chainstay mounted U-brake... can you say 86/87?)

Nominally,
I've picked bicycles made after 1978 with "classic" design
aspects - adaptable design, good clearance, etc - only because Classic
Rendevous and similar sites seem to cut off bikes around this
point. It's a bike you wouldn't feel funny talking about on the
iBob
email list.

Some
are racy, some are versatile, some are trash-bikes. If it doesn't
seem to be like any of the other bikes, you should make a claim
for its inclusion in your email (with the photos, natch...)

A
Current Classic is not -

A
compact framed road bike, made from aluminum with some sort of wiggly
carbon bits said to have "vertical compliance" for road
bumps.*

A
full-suspension mountain bike*. Although a humorous failure of design
might be included...

A
mountain bike with hugely oversized tubes.*

Other
than that, I'm pretty open to suggestions & submissions - I
would tend to include mountain bikes made of steel with rigid forks,
road bikes with horizontal top tubes (although this
and anything else BG
makes would be included) and an attention to detail at the tube
joints. Lugged frames, of course. Fillet Brazed frames, of course.

(*And
I'm not saying that mass produced or modern bicycles are bad - just
trying to define the parameters for the Current
Classic Gallery.)

Is
my mountain bike a "Current Classic"?

Well,
maybe... There was a period when mtb's were versatile, adaptable
and dependable. These days they seem very purpose-specific. At worst,
they can be finicky and needlessly over-built. So, if the needle
points more to the "V", "A" and "D"
than to the "P-S", "F" and "N O-B"
end of the spectrum, it would be a welcome addition.

Dunno.
Maybe it's because when I started getting interested in ss mtb's,
you pretty much had to cobble them together youself. Or maybe it's
because of Frank Zappa's "Joe's Garage". Could have something
to do with "Garage Band" from the Clash. Mebbe it's because
in Northern California, all we have is carports and I'm jealous.
Might be all those things and more.

Does
my bicycle have to be a Rivendell to be a Current Classic?

Nope.
The idea behind the Current Classics
Gallery is to bring together those bicycles which demonstrate
a commitment to classic and proven designs. Rivendell certainly
epitomizes those beliefs, but the site is open to any manfacturer
who crafts bikes along those lines.

Nope.
I own one (well,
now two)
and really like a couple other
models. I also as of spring 2007) moderate the RBW
Owners' Bunch list over on Google Groups. Since I've tended
to keep an eye on developments Rivendellian, I created a
page which aggregates RBW stuff in a semi-blog-like fashion.
(Although as of 2010, they have worked through some site issues
and have been much more regular in providing updates via their "Blug",
which I would recommend you also follow.)

This
is all from a simple interest in the company and its philosophy.

Working
Bikes - Wazzat?

Any
bicycle which is being used instead of a motor vehicle (or a flippin'
Segway...) for deliveries, transportation, hauling, etc. Follow
the links on the Working Bikes
page to Porteurs, for an example.